Okta offers Touch ID-based multifactor authentication for iPhones

Okta, a San Francisco-based identity management startup, announced Monday a bunch of updates to its products that are aimed at improving its offerings on mobile devices.

Okta Verify, the company's two-factor authentication product, now supports Touch ID for user authentication. What that means is that users who get a push notification sent to their iPhone in order to approve a login can now authenticate the attempt using their fingerprint. It's an added level of security on top of the two-factor authentication capabilities in Verify, which is useful for organizations that want to keep logins even more secure without worrying about inconveniencing users.

For Web apps that require a username and password, iPhone and iPad users can now take advantage of a new browser extension that lets them log into Web apps in Safari without having to remember a username and password.

It works much like other password-filling extensions from the likes of LastPass and 1Password: when users hit a login page that requires a username and password, they can open up Safari's share sheet, tap on the Okta button in the second row of icons, and then have the service enter their username and password for them.

Organizations that use Okta Mobility Management will also be able to load custom applications into the enterprise mobility management service's app store, alongside applications from the public store. It's a change that will be helpful for companies that have built custom mobile applications for their employees to use -- an approach that has been growing in popularity.

It's something that some of Okta's competitors in the mobility space have already developed, so adding that capability is key for the company to be competitive in a rough-and-tumble market that includes several major tech giants like VMware, Microsoft and IBM.

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